Hometown Memories Come Spinning Out Of The Turn

I`m a New Year`s baby, born Jan. 1, 1931, in Chicago. New Year`s Day is the universal birthdate of all racehorses. No matter when they`re foaled, all thoroughbreds in the world turn a year older on Jan. 1. Also, ``Phillip``

means ``lover of horses`` in Greek. Can you believe that? So it seems appropriate that I wound up doing what I`m doing.

I was born during the Depression, and we were very poor. My father had been a garage mechanic for the Yellow Cab Co. He was assaulted and robbed while working in the garage. So he chose to drive a cab because he felt it was safer! In those days it was. In 42 years he was never robbed while driving a cab.

We lived on the West Side, at 4628 W. Monroe St., right off Madison and Cicero. Every night when he came home, my father gave me a quarter, and I would take my friends out to Skokie Valley Ice Cream at Cicero and Monroe. We could buy ice cream cones for four cents. Later they were a nickel. Sundaes and sodas were a dime, so for a quarter I could treat two or three of us and have a big night.

Then we`d come back and sit on the porch or play games on the street. We were constantly playing relievo. It`s a game where you choose sides. I loved that game because I was the fastest kid on the block.

I went to Spencer Grammar School, which was about nine blocks from my home. Later I went to Austin High School, then for two years to Wright Junior College. I eventually ended up at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. I was the only non-Catholic on our block. There were the Finnegans, the Sullivans, the Clancys and the Hennesseys. I was the only one who attended Austin. The other kids either went to St. Mel`s or Fenwick, but we were all the best of friends.

My father gave me an easy lesson on the layout of Chicago. He said it was the easiest of all the major cities to find your way around. It was laid out beautifully, except for diagonal streets such as Lincoln or Milwaukee.

The theaters near me in those days were the Marbro, on Karlov and Madison, and the Paradise, which was just north on Pulaski. They were the most beautiful theaters in Chicago. I think they were more plush than the Chicago or the State-Lake.

In those days, going downtown to see a movie was quite a thing. The first big movie my mother took me to was ``Phantom of the Opera,`` in 1943, when I was 12. I think it was at the RKO. I had read the book, and I was a real fan. Claude Rains and Nelson Eddy were in it.

I was a movie bug. My mother took me to the smaller neighborhood theaters, such as the Avenue on Cicero and the Savoy on Madison. Each was about three blocks from the house. We`d also go to the West End on Cicero and the Byrd on Madison and Cicero.

During the summer, my father had three weeks off. Every day he`d go to either Arlington Park or Washington Park. He`d take my mother, but I`d go with the kids to Round Lake, preferring to swim or play baseball. I thought race tracks would be boring with a long wait between races.

One day I reluctantly agreed to go to Washington Park with him. That was in 1943. I was instantly smitten! I thought I was a stranger in paradise. I remember the first daily double. ``Air Risk`` won the first race, and ``Joe Berger`` won the second. The double paid $13.20 for a $2 bet. I had a dollar on it with my father, so we split, $6.60 each. From that moment on, racing was my life.

For many years I wanted to be a jockey. I was 4 feet 8-the smallest boy at Austin High. I weighed 112 pounds. But when I was 17, I weighed 132.

I recall going to Riverview too. They had two-cent days. I went there once a week until they tore it down.

I`m a West Sider, but I explored the city on my bicycle. My friends and I went to the Loop. We loved to go to Oak Street beach, but it was a long trip. I loved swimming, but we had very few pools in the inner city then. Once in a while we would go to North Avenue beach, but Oak Street seemed to be the one that kids in my neighborhood liked.

When I was at Northwestern in 1953 and `54, I worked summers at Arlington and Washington Parks doing publicity. I started as a press aide, working for Harry Sheer, who did the Quidnunc feature in the Sports section of the Tribune.

I graduated in absentia because I didn`t want to take off a Saturday at Arlington. In 1955 I was halfway through my master`s degree in radio and TV journalism when the job opened year-round at Arlington and Washington. I was appointed assistant publicity director, so I quit school.

I started announcing in 1959, while still working for Harry. When he retired in 1961, I became publicity director and director of advertising for the tracks.

From the time I started announcing in 1959, I experimented with different phrases to bring the horses out of the stretch. We had no video in those days. We only had film to supply the TV stations. They usually picked up the race from the stretch, and I needed a catch phrase.

I tried ``swinging out of the turn,`` ``curving out`` and some others.

``Spinning out of the turn`` caught on, and it`s the phrase I`ve used for 92,000 races. It`s a world record.